Since October 2017, 11 people have arrested as part of “The Network” case in Russia – a terrorism investigation into anti-fascists and anarchists. According to investigators, these men were members of an organisation that planned to provoke the “further destabilisation of the political climate in the country” during the Russian presidential elections and Football World Cup. Cells of the organisation were allegedly operating in Moscow, St Petersburg, Penza and Belarus.
Several of the men detained have reported being tortured into confessing to charges at the hands of the FSB. For example, software engineer Viktor Filinkov, who was abducted from St Petersburg Pulkovo airport in January 2018, describes in detail how he was tortured into learning a false confession in a minivan on the outskirts of the city.
On 19 January, Vitaly Cherkasov, legal counsel for Viktor Filinkov, held a press conference on his client’s case in St Petersburg. After being under investigation for 13 months, Filinkov’s case has now been sent to court, and Cherkasov is free to discuss the evidence. According to Cherkasov, there is no serious evidence in the case file against his client.
